Many see pro-wrestling as beefy men rolling around in Speedos, bashing each other’s faces in, and getting paid mad cash to do so. Unfortunately, professional wrestling isn’t all jokes. WWE wrestler Andrew “Test” Martin was found dead in his home last month, which brings back the mystery of why so many professional wrestlers die at a young age.

There is a long list of pro-wrestlers who have died under mysterious circumstances before reaching age 50. In fact, there have been over 60 pro-wrestler deaths since 1985, all of whom died in their 20s, 30s and 40s from various hidden health issues.

Test was seen by a neighbour, sitting in a chair by a window in his home. The neighbour called police after realizing Test had not moved an inch for days. He was found dead by police, who also discovered prescription pain killers and multiple kinds of steroids in his bathroom.

Drugs:Painkillers are usually a big part of a pro-wrestler’s life. When they get injured in a match they are prescribed painkillers to numb the pain, because if they take off too much time from work to recover properly, their income suffers. They get addicted to painkillers easily, because they are injured often. Sometimes their addiction is so strong that they can no longer wrestle.

Depression and stress lead to street drugs, and their health is put in jeopardy. Steroids obviously play a big part in the deaths of these young men as well. When they get suddenly buff and huge, it takes an even bigger toll on their hearts. The heart pumps blood through the body, and now it has to work twice and hard to keep the blood circulating throughout all the new body mass. As wrestlers get addicted to steroids and get larger the heart is put under serious stress, beating fast because of the drugs, and beating hard because of the large body it has to keep alive. Sometimes this is just too much, and the heart fails.